


Green as Hope and as your Blood

by Flammenkobold



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Eventual Happy Ending, Hopeful Ending, Other, Reincarnation, Soul Bond, Time Travel, cursed coins, dont mix reincarnation and time travel things get weird, gender changes due to reincarnation, species swap due to reincarnation, the mission always comes first, time travel messes up the whole reincarnation business
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flammenkobold/pseuds/Flammenkobold
Summary: The first time they meet, Wilde wears a green dress and flips a dagger in one hand and the rare symbol of Charon in the other. After that they recognize each other in every life, sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it takes but one look. Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam, ironically, is the one who takes the longest. And then time travel messes up their timeline even more.
Relationships: Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam/Oscar Wilde, Skraak/Oscar Wilde (Rusty Quill Gaming)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	Green as Hope and as your Blood

The first time they meet, Wilde wears a green dress and flips a dagger in one hand and the rare symbol of Charon he hired her mentor to protect in the other hand. His name, Wilde informs him, almost sounds like that of her brother and she doesn't know if that makes her like him or not. 

He likes her instantly and asks for her to stay in his employ. 

The first time they get separated, she dies in his arms, blood seeping into his clothes and onto the coin he let her keep. She is grinning at him over the stupid question he asked, teeth red, "I'm fine, stop asking." 

He places the coin in her grave and prays to any god that will listen to let him meet her again.

\---

One answers in exchange for his services as a hunter.

\---

They meet again in another life. 

Wilde is old and frail by the time he finds him (and it's him this time and any time after), and he himself is still young, there is no conflict but there are responsibilities and when they part ways for a mission, the news of his lover’s peaceful death reaches him in the early morning, hundreds of miles away.

\---

The time after that he dies first and that is not less painful for either of them.

\---

He flits through names and species and gender as randomly as the toss of a coin, Wilde remains more steady in his incarnations, initial twists and turns aside. But they recognize each other every time, sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it takes but one look. 

The only other constant for him is Artemis, the one he pledged his loyalty to as much as he pledged it to his love. 

That and that there is always a duty for one or both of them that is greater than what they want.

But this is what made them fall in love that first time after all, putting their duties above their own wishes and hopes. Be it Artemis’ rules or Ava's code or because it is the right thing to do - because others need them more.

\---

Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam, ironically, takes the longest time to recognize and remember Wilde, too focused on the now, on his mission, on the little time he has by default, to see all the past lives in his wake. It takes Damascus and a firework and a phrase he hasn't heard since his first life for the memories to come back. And by then there is hardly any time left with each other.

He means to get back, he wants to go to Japan, but he can't resist looking either. 

In Rome, shortly before he dies, a few things slot into place for Grizzop, Ava and the Wilde in the green dress and how intricate and nonsensical his own timeline is. 

Even without that he would have given his life for Sasha, but he dies calmer still for knowing she will be the one introducing them to each other.

\---

Rome messes up his timeline even more, because there should always only be one of him at any given time, but there is not, not when Grizzop meets Oscar Wilde in Prague, because time and reason don’t work like that when you have the blessing of one god and the curse of an old coin, and a mission to do good.

\---

Skraak knows there are still memories buried in his mind, things that run deeper than even the drugs could reach. 

The other memories he has back now, of his people and of his childhood - of every horrible thing Shoin did. But he knows there are others, he just doesn't have the time to dig for them, not when there are more important things to do, more urgent matters. 

It's only when the man is tied up and his eyes still defiantly and indignantly glaring at Skraak and the others that those memories start slipping back too. He doesn't have the time, he can't do this now. He nearly laughs though, here they are again, as promised meeting in Japan, and yet, yet there is again an entire world of responsibilities keeping them apart.

Before Svalbard, when he cannot go with the rest of them, he stops Wilde, doesn't care that there isn't time, doesn't care that the others are watching. It's the end of the world and he'll be damned if he doesn't get to say goodbye. He doesn't say 'stay safe', he doesn't ask him to be careful. 

"Find me when this is over," he says instead and watches the confusion in Wilde's eyes turn to recognition and then pain. Wilde blinks tears away and swallows the same bitter laugh that's been stuck in Skraak’s throat this entire journey. But his voice is steady when he speaks up. 

"I will."

For the first time on this journey there is a glimmer of real hope in Oscar Wilde’s eyes.

\---

Wilde finds him after, finds him again in Japan and the first thing he says is, "I cannot stay." 

So he nods, takes Wilde's hand in his, presses kisses made awkward by his snout to Wilde's fingers. "I know. And I cannot come with you." They both have their duties still, Skraak to the kobolds and Wilde to the world. "But stay a while?"

Wilde laughs and it's not entirely hopeless. "Yes," he agrees and does.

They'll meet again, one way or the other, and maybe then there will be more time for them together, but for now they're going to steal all the time they can, as if they are thieves slipping through the night like liquid shadows slinking down stairs.

\---

The next time they meet again Charon and Artemis look favourably on them. They get a lifetime together, they get to stay in the same place, they get to have their time. 

The first time he sees Wilde in that lifetime, Wilde is wearing green again.


End file.
